Oleksandr Klymenko has no status of a suspect, – lawyers of the politician

Oleksandr Klymenko, former Minister of revenues and duties, the leader of the “Uspіshna Kraina” party has no status of a suspect at the moment. Accordingly, all the actions of the Prosecutor General’s Office, which are carried out in the context of investigation concerning the politician, are illegal. Resonance statements of the Prosecutor General’s Office – are nothing more than PR and Persecution on political grounds. On August 29, it was reported by the lawyers, who defend interests of Oleksandr Klymenko, during the press-conference in Kyiv.

Let us remind on August 23, 2016, Yuriy Lutsenko – Prosecutor General of Ukraine – made series of resonant statements concerning the investigation of the case of former Minister of revenues and duties of Ukraine, including the amount of damages (according to him, UAH 198 billion). Earlier, representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office stated about various amounts of allegedly caused damages – from 616 million to 6 billion.

“Criminal prosecution of Oleksandr Klymenko is based exclusively on political grounds. During the last two years, we can hear different charges and amounts, which depends on the speaker and political situation. However, it does not comply with the information that is presented in the case and available to lawyers,”- Olena Klymenko, representative of the interests of the ex-minister, said.

Attorneys of Oleksandr Klymenko emphasize that they are aware of two criminal proceedings. The first one is related to art. 364 of the Criminal Code – Abuse of authority or office that cause losses in the amount of 126 mln. (non-payment of taxes to the budget) – and has been investigated since April 2014. Nowadays, as far as we know, it was suspended. The second one is related to para. 5 art. 191 of the Criminal Code – complicity in misappropriation of UAH 616 mln. in the form of reimbursement of VAT to legal entity – was opened in December 2014.

In this case judges returned request for a special pre-trial investigation to investigator of the Prosecutor General’s Office twice (in February 2016 and August 2016). In addition, in February 2016, the investigation was refused to selection of a preventive measure in the form of detention with regard to Oleksandr Klymenko. The reason for such judgments was the fact that Klymenko has not acquired the status of a suspect in accordance with the law, as well as numerous and substantial violations of criminal procedure, which were committed during the pre-trial investigation.

The political persecution, which was claimed by the lawyers, can be also proved by the fact that Interpol has repeatedly blocked information on the presence of Klymenko in the international wanted list. Under the Constitution of this Organization, it is strictly forbidden for the Organization to undertake any intervention or activities of a political character. In addition, Olena Klymenko states that “the General Court of the EU ordered to annul Council Implementing Decision 2014/216/CFSP of 14 April 2014 implementing Decision 2014/119/CFSP concerning restrictive measures directed against certain persons, entities and bodies in view of the situation in Ukraine, and Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 38112014 of 14 April 2014 implementing Regulation (EU) No 208/2014 concerning restrictive measures directed against certain persons, entities and bodies in view of the situation in Ukraine in so far as they relate to Mr Oleksandr Klymenko”.

At the same time, according to the lawyers of Klymenko, they have no information (except for data published in media) about the case on damages in the amount of UAH 198 billion, which was claimed by leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office. “If the Prosecutor General’s Office proceeds to declare such statements, which are not buttressed up by facts, we will have to file a lawsuit on protection of honour, dignity and reputation of our client”, – the lawyer of Klymenko stated. Earlier, the attorneys of Oleksandr Klymenko have already won similar lawsuits against a number of representatives of Ukrainian authorities, who claimed about unfounded statements in relation to the politician.

According to Sergei Voichenko, who represents the interests of former officials of tax authorities, whose detention was declared by Prosecutor General on August 10, in general “the so-called “Yanukovych case” – it is nothing more than one great publicity stunt ”

It comes about the case # 400, which, according to the lawyer, has more than 200 volumes and consists of 133 episodes. “Criminal proceedings were registered in January 31, 2013 – during the so-called “criminal regime of Yanukovych”. Thus, people are still detained in August 2016. Who are detained? People, who were residing in Kyiv, who are guilty of work during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych. For instance, one of the detainees – is retired woman, who has been working in tax service since 1989 (during the times of Gorbachev, Kravchuk, Kuchma, Yushchenko). Should we accuse her of coup d’état? You cannot accuse all of all things without proof. You cannot state that all, who were working under Yanukovych, are criminals. In such case, 12 million people, who voted for Yanukovych during the presidential elections, can be called “criminals”, – Voichenko said.

In the so-called “organized criminal group of Yanukovych” there is plethora absurd episodes. Thus, according to the lawyer, in three episodes it was indicated that the offense was allegedly committed by the person, who was born in January 1, 1900. In addition, there is accomplice of the crime, who was born in July 25, 2016.

According to the lawyer, all of these facts show not only unprofessionalism of the prosecutor’s office, but also political motivates of cases and desire of individual leaders of the Prosecutor General’s Office to build their political career. In addition, the lawyer does not exclude that there will be “an attempt of a large redistribution of capital” under the pretext of this criminal proceeding.